Woman goes viral with story of ‘oddball’ $7 Christmas tree

‘I love this. As a child, I felt bad for the oddball trees that no one picked,’ one viewer writes

A woman’s Christmas tree has caught the attention of many for its unique appearance.

Ahead of the holidays, Natalie took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to share her family’s pick for this year’s Christmas tree. Rather than dropping a chunk of change on a pre-cut, full Fir, her mom opted for a $7 option she could saw down herself.

“My parents in recent years have taken to getting a national forest pass to cut down their own tree because tree farm prices have skyrocketed,” Natalie’s caption read. “This year she tells me ‘our tree is a little bit different, we weren’t sure at first but it’s growing on us.’”

A tall, frail tree planted on top of a table in their living room was pictured directly below Natalie’s message. With very few branches attached to the thin body and sparse greenery, the tree looked as if it was plucked at the end of its season.

“I told her she got $7 worth of a tree,” Natalie admitted. “She says it’s elegant and likes that it’s very tall (they’ve had one this tall before since you get to pick whatever size you want in the national forest for $7).”

In a follow-up picture, the original poster shared what the tree looked like with lights woven through and delicate ornaments hung up. To her, the decorations made the tree look more “elegant,” and social media viewers agreed.

Stunned X users flocked to Natalie’s comments, adding sweet messages and confessing their admiration for her family’s one-of-a-kind tree.

“This is the best thread I’ve read in a long time. Cheers to them - and may Nancy have many more Christmas sightings this season,” one woman wrote, referring to Natalie’s mom.

“I love this. As a child, I felt bad for the oddball trees that no one picked. And today, while walking my dog, I found another Charlie Brown tree in the wild,” another commented.

One user admitted their family follows a similar method: “My parents do the same but seem to have slightly better tree stock.”

“You guys are the cutest! This is amazing,” another fan added.

Shortly after seeing the flood of support from strangers online, Natalie forwarded her mom the loving messages.

“I sent my mom some of the responses here and she really loved them, her response is classic teacher Nancy,” Natalie noted.

In a screenshot of their messages, Nancy could be seen saying: “I sure appreciate these comments... these comments are kind and these thoughts are heartwarming. That’s a Christmas sighting.

“I learned from this tree to receive and cherish a tree that has its own personality... not following the shorn cone-shaped tree that we have been patterned to think is the only way to be, and not to be down on the cone-shaped tree, just to let there be different kinds of beautiful.”

Speaking to The Independent, Nancy explained how she picked the best of the bunch when selecting this year’s tree. “We found none of the noble type of tree. Since it was our second time out from our home and 75 miles away from our home, we decided we would choose a tree from where we were,” she confessed. “So …. We drove home with our somewhat sparse tree. At first, I was disappointed. Sparse…. Our tree was mostly trunk.”

“But as I sat looking at our not-as-yet decorated tree…. I thought, ‘This whole year has been different than I wanted it to be. My cancer journey this year ended in surgery during which I realized, I need to release my control on my health and life and trust God’s care for me,’” she continued.

“So …. our Christmas tree is an official Christmas sighting simply because, our tree broke my stereotype of what I expect life to be,” Nancy admitted.